Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

the-rapture

2015-07-21 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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the-rapture
Votey panel for the-rapture
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Explanation

The Joke

A man confidently declares "The Rapture will come in my lifetime!" A woman responds "Really?" and then says "That's great! Hey, since you're getting raptured, could you sign this agreement to transfer all your possessions to me in the event of your death?" The man agrees, saying "I know it's not going to happen, so this is just for fun." In the final panel, the man has softened his claim to "The Rapture will PROBABLY come in my lifetime!" and the woman says "Aha!"

The Humor

The comic exposes a common form of cognitive dissonance in religious belief through a simple economic test. If someone truly believed the Rapture was imminent and they would be taken to heaven, they should have no problem signing away their earthly possessions — they will not need them. But when actually confronted with the legal consequences of their stated belief, the man immediately reveals he does not fully believe it by hedging from "will" to "probably." The woman's "Aha!" captures the moment she has demonstrated that his stated belief and his actual belief are different. It is essentially a version of the concept of "revealed preferences" from economics — people's true beliefs are shown by what they are willing to stake on them, not by what they claim to believe.

References

The Rapture is a concept in Christian eschatology, particularly popular in some Protestant denominations, referring to the belief that believers will be bodily taken up to heaven before or during the end times. The comic's approach resembles philosophical concepts like Pascal's Wager and the economic concept of revealed preferences.

View History (1) Original Comic